Long-Range Multibody Interactions and Three-Body Antiblockade in a Trapped Rydberg Ion Chain

Filippo M. Gambetta, Chi Zhang, Markus Hennrich, Igor Lesanovsky, and Weibin Li
Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 133602 – Published 22 September 2020
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Abstract

Trapped Rydberg ions represent a flexible platform for quantum simulation and information processing that combines a high degree of control over electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom. The possibility to individually excite ions to high-lying Rydberg levels provides a system where strong interactions between pairs of excited ions can be engineered and tuned via external laser fields. We show that the coupling between Rydberg pair interactions and collective motional modes gives rise to effective long-range and multibody interactions consisting of two, three, and four-body terms. Their shape, strength, and range can be controlled via the ion trap parameters and strongly depends on both the equilibrium configuration and vibrational modes of the ion crystal. By focusing on an experimentally feasible quasi one-dimensional setup of Sr+88 Rydberg ions, we demonstrate that multibody interactions are enhanced by the emergence of soft modes associated with, e.g., a structural phase transition. This has a striking impact on many-body electronic states and results—for example—in a three-body antiblockade effect that can be employed as a sensitive probe to detect structural phase transitions in Rydberg ion chains. Our study unveils the possibilities offered by trapped Rydberg ions for studying exotic phases of matter and quantum dynamics driven by enhanced multibody interactions.

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  • Received 18 May 2020
  • Accepted 27 August 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.133602

© 2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalQuantum Information, Science & TechnologyCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Filippo M. Gambetta1,2, Chi Zhang3, Markus Hennrich3, Igor Lesanovsky1,2,4, and Weibin Li1,2

  • 1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
  • 2Centre for the Mathematics and Theoretical Physics of Quantum Non-equilibrium Systems, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
  • 3Department of Physics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
  • 4Institut für Theoretische Physik, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 125, Iss. 13 — 25 September 2020

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